The Six Misfits of Olympus
by PixieKindOfCrazy
Summary: Six very different girls must come together, with the help of Percy, to defeat a darkness they don't yet understand. Many OC's but most canon characters are included. '"Haha, that was badass, Meels," was the last thing I said before my sister and I jumped out of a moving train.' Rated T for language and suggestiveness
1. Chapter 1

**A/n: **_So this has been in the wrong folder in my computer for a while, so I kind of forgot to upload it…oops. Anyway, this story is full of OC's, but will remain faithful to the books we all love so much. There will be appearances from most of the Camp HalfBlood gang but the main character OC's are based off me and my friends. I find it easier to write dialogue and thoughts for characters if I actually know them. If anyone wants to guess, yes, Alice, the narrator, is based off me. Meely is my best friend who is a year younger than me. (These are not our real names.)_

**Disclaimer: **_I would say I only own the OC's, but I really don't own my friends…but I own the plot!_

**The Six Misfits of Olympus**

_When his darkness comes, the sky will fall_

_Unless the six misfits answer the call_

_The children of Love must stand for violence_

_The Poet's daughter must prevent silence_

_One child of Lightning will find another_

_The eldest will walk under night for cover_

_Lightning and the Thief will trick the Sky_

_Through his Power, he will fall or rule_

_The Orphan of War must use the final tool_

Alice's POV

The rain pounded down hard against the tin roof of the train station. I usually liked the rain, but for the first time in my life, I wished for the rain to stop. I don't know why, but I saw it as a bad omen. Usually, I would draw power from the refreshing mist. But not today. It just seemed different now. Part of me still wanted to run out from the cover of this dreary red building's roof and dance through the rain, feel the water droplets shatter against my palms as I'd look up at the sky….I shook my head. I couldn't do that. We'd miss the train. Plus, I don't think it'd have the same magical effect as it used to, now that Dad's not here to watch me spin around and get myself soaked. Also, I don't think Meely would appreciate it if I jumped up to dance in the rain right now, seeing as her head would fall off my shoulder and she'd wake up from her nap by having her head slam against the cold wooden bench we were sitting on.

I laughed a little to myself at the mental picture, but stopped and looked up when I heard the familiar 'Choo! Choo!' of the train.

I shook Meely awake by her shoulders as I saw the front of the train pull up to the loading gate, and the warm puff of smoke billowed out from the old engines, "Meels," I shook my little sister again.

"Five more minutes, Daddy," she mumbled against my arm.

I shook her again. Partly so we wouldn't miss our train, partly because the weight of her head was starting to make my shoulder go numb, but mostly because it stung my heart and eyes to hear her talk about Dad, "Meely Majita! Wake the crap up!"

She shook her head spastically and jerked up off my shoulder, "Hmm, huh, yeah, I'm awake. Save me some waffles."

I looked over at her with a raised eyebrow look that cleary said: What the crap are you talking about?

She rolled her eyes at my face, "I was having that dream again. The one where you steal all my breakfast and make a little fort of waffles and sausage…." She explained sleepily as she rubbed her eyes and looked around. I almost laughed at her dream, again, until she remembered where we were and her face dropped, her expression switching to that scared yet angry puppy look that makes me furious that our life is such crap sometimes.

"Dad's dead."

She said it as a statement, not a question. She was just voicing her thoughts. She does it a lot so I was used to her bluntness, but I my heart still sunk at her words, like it was made of led.

I nodded grimly and stood up, taking our bags, "Yeah," I mumbled then swallowed back tears, "We're running away. Remember?"

She blinked, as if she was trying to make herself wake up from this dream. I leaned down and took her shoulder in my hands, I looked her in the eyes as I spoke, "Meels….this is real. Dad's….gone," I couldn't get myself to ever say _dead_, because he wasn't; he was still right there in that little space in my heart, smiling on us, " And Mom was never with us. But _we_ are still here. I have you and you have me. That's all that matters right now. And I refuse to go to some stupid orphanage or foster home with state paid adults that might not even really love us. Because we are NOT orphans; we're sisters. Orphans have no family, we do. WE are each other's family now. Besides, you KNOW you'd rather live in a cave then go stay with Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Sylvester," I grinned at her as she shuddered at that thought. Our Aunt and Uncle were….well; the only word that comes to mind is _slimy_. That's precisely why Dad moved us here, 500 miles away from them, when I was four. Meely was two at the time, but she still remembers the way Uncle Sylvester leered at us as we drove away, picking something unidentifiable out of his teeth.

Meely took a deep breath, smiled, and stood up, "You're right! We're not pathetic orphans, we have each other. And we have a Mom."

I groaned as we took our bags and stepped onto the train, "Meels, I told you-she's not a real mother if she's never even MET us." Ok, so I've kind of met her. But I haven't figured out how to tell Meely about what our mother had told me…

Meely rolled her eyes, "She met us when we were born, Alice, DUH!"

I laughed and smiled, thankful yet again that my sister's eternal optimism had lifted my spirits.

Once we were seated and situated as comfortable as possible in these cramped and stained velvet mauve train seats, I laid my head against the window as my baby sister's prattling voice lulled me off to sleep.

In my dream, I was surrounded by white flowers; tulips. My Dad said if he ever died, he'd want tulips at his funeral; because they reminded him of our mother. Graceful and beautiful.

"They could represent whatever you wanted, be so many things…." That's what my Dad used to say about these flowers. And about me and my sister. He said he saw so much of Mom in us that it almost made him cry sometimes.

I was at my Dad's funeral. I fingered one of the soft white petals as the preacher rambled on. I knew I should be listening. I like Preacher Tom; he was a close friend of my Dad's and he always gave Meely and I a stick of gum whenever he visited Dad. But I couldn't bear to even look at him as he spoke; this was my Dad's eulogy. Dad wasn't supposed to die; he was so full of life that I used to think he would live forever. I guess the drunk idiot that crashed into Dad's car didn't care that I thought he was immortal. I looked out over wide range of hills topped with oak trees; we lived in a kind of big estate. We're not really that rich, but Dad inherited from Grandpa….it used to be an orchard. But my Dad only kept the trees up and growing because he knows me and Meely liked to make fruit pies in harvesting season.

_I spy with my little eye_….I let my gaze wonder across the hills, I always play this game when I'm stressed or avoiding something, or both. I stopped when my eyes landed on a woman. Standing under one of the old peach trees (We live in Georgia; they're A LOT of peach trees). The woman was stunning. Even from this far away, I could see that she was beautiful. And she seemed to be pointing at me in a "come here" motion. My eyes widened in surprise and confusion; what would a random gorgeous lady want with me and why was she standing under my favorite tree?

I looked around me and saw that everyone was caught up in Preacher Tom's words, so no one noticed when I slipped out of my side-row seat and started to walk to the trees in the distance. I took off my black heels-and left them under my seat- so it'd be easier to walk up the hill. As got closer to the woman, a weird sweet smelling wind blew bye and rustled my cream silk dress (I refused to wear the most somber of somber colors at what was supposed to be a celebration of my very colorful father's life. The concept of somber respect and a black dress didn't seem to fit with my dad.)

As I came face to face with the woman, I realized the scent on the fall breeze was the smell of her perfume. When I actually looked at her close up, she was….even more beautiful, if that were possible. I couldn't decide if her hair was blond or red or brown, or if her eyes were blue or green or hazel. But she reminded me of every pretty Hollywood starlet I'd ever seen and everything that I ever thought was beautiful. It seemed to all be in her face. She was silent for a second, letting me take everything in.

But then she spoke,"Alice," she smiled glowingly and suddenly I felt like a little girl as she looked down at me, "My dear little Allie. I'm sorry I never spoke to you before this; it really is horrible timing. But I needed you to know something."

From the sound of her voice I automatically knew this woman was my mother, "Mom?"

I was ashamed of myself for letting my voice squeak, but I couldn't help it.

"Yes," she almost sighed the word, "I'm your Mother. And you, Alice Lyla Marie Stevens are no regular girl. You are my daughter; a child of love and a daughter of Aphrodite."

I gaped at the woman; was she crazy? Coming here after 16 years and telling me 'Hey I'm your Mom and guess what? I'm the immortal goddess of love.'

Anger started to boil in the pit of my stomach. Who does she think she is? She abandoned us; my sister, my father, me…. She left the people I love the most in the dust and now she acts like nothing happened?

She puts her hand on my shoulder and I flinch away, roughly breaking out of her grasp, I eye her with a mix between fear and anger, "I don't care if you ARE a goddess, lady, you don't have the right to just show up here 16 years after you abandoned me and my family and just act like it's okay."

She looked a little hurt, but she was hiding it well. She smirked approvingly at me, "You're fiery, girl. Ares would like you…." she seemed torn between amused at that idea and annoyed at herself for saying it.

I was still looking at her like she was insane, "Ares? The god of war? I'm just asking, fair question and all cuz you show up at my Dad's funeral out of the blue and everything, but are you mentally ill?"

She laughed. She freakin' laughed, "No, child, I'm being honest. I've watched you. I know certain things about you. For example; you like 80s music, you pace when you're thinking, you hate sports clothing stores. See? I didn't abandon you. I've been watching. But I couldn't speak to you until now; Zeus thinks talking to mortals is dangerous, sends up signs to monsters or something, I don't know, he's always so grumpy, point is: Those Greek gods I've seen you read about AREN'T myths. They're real. We exist. And you're my daughter."

I blinked, what she was saying was finally sinking in. I found myself believing her. I was still pissed that she didn't fight harder to stay in contact with us, but I was starting to understand. It'd probably take me a while to forgive her, but for now I at least believed her, "So…let's say I believe you okay? You're REALLY Aphrodite and you're really my Mom. But why now? Why did you crash my Dad's funeral to talk to me? And why just me? Why aren't you talking to Meely too?"

She looked out across the hill to look at the funeral procession, and I could tell her eyes were focused on Meely sitting in her chair in her blue dress with a scared and still somehow angry expression on her face.

"Meely wouldn't listen right now if I tried to talk to her. She's too…distressed. I don't blame her. But you, you're older; you're….almost ready now. "

"Ready for what?" She was starting to piss me off again.

She smiled sadly, as if she would've laughed fondly at my antics if she wasn't so weighed down by something, "I can't tell you that. You have to figure it out on your own. But I do have something I can and NEED to tell you," she put her hands on my shoulders again and this time I let her, "Alice, the darkness is about to begin. A war will start. Your friends are going to need you. When they want to give up, you're going to be that spark of insanity that inspires them to be brave. You're an artist, my daughter, and that means that you can see things-ideas, pictures, possibilities- that others cannot. Love is the most powerful tool you have. When you feel like giving up, remember this: Love cannot be beaten."

I blinked a couple times out of shock. I had so many questions. I always thought that meeting my mother would clear up my confusion about her, but all it did was make me want to know more answers. Yet something about her presence and her words made me hesitant to form a sentence. I felt like this was way above my head. Like I shouldn't know how to do any of the stuff she'd just said I would have to. But for some reason, I still whole-heartedly believed her. It made no sense; all of this stuff was supposed to be fake. Only stories parents tell their kids when they're little. I shouldn't believe any of this stuff. I should be questioning my sanity. But I wasn't. I knew that what she was saying was true. And I'd never been very sane anyway, "But….what? What darkness? Why do I have to stop it? Why's is there going to be a war?" questions flew out of my mouth as soon as I mustered up the courage and clarity to ask them, "I hate war…." I mumbled to myself. Sure, practice sparring is really fun. I love to do that with Meely. I mean we forced Dad to let us take martial arts lessons. But war….that was a bigger scale. Soldiers kill to protect their homes and that I respect. It's the people that start the war that I hate; because there is no reason that they should have to kill the opposition to resolve their problem.

Aprhodite laughed, and the sound was like wind chimes blowing in the breeze, "Of course you do. You're a child of Love. Love opposes war."

I raised my eyebrow at her in disbelief, "But didn't I read a story where you….hooked up…. with _Ares_?"

Her eyes turned to slits of pink fire, "Mortal writers always exaggerating things….we went on a couple of dates, okay?"

I laughed.

She shook her head and her eyes regained focus, "Never mind that. Listen to me now. You need to get out of here."

I looked at her silently for a moment, deciding whether or not I should trust her, or even listen to her, "Why?" I asked cautiously.

She seemed to gain back some of her godly anger from before, "Because there's an ugly group of evil harpies coming to fly you and your sister off to their nest for lunch."

Both my eyebrows shot up, "Harpies like evil sky spirits harpies?"

She rolled her eyes, "Yes. They're aren't that many kinds of harpies."

_Just the good kind that work for Zeus and the rogue ones…._I thought to myself.

She looked over her shoulder, as if checking to make sure they're wasn't a herd of monsters clambering over the hill, "You need to go now. Take your sister and head to New York. There's a Camp there for kids like you. You'll be safe."

Her voice was quickly taking on a desperate tone, as if she had only seconds left to talk to me. And it was scaring me more than I'd like to admit, "Camp? What camp? And how will we know where it is?"

She glanced at me distractedly as if she was trying to sort through her thoughts-so that's where I get my scatter-brained trait from, "Hmm…it doesn't have an address. And I can't teleport you there because Zeus is a paranoid twit and is monitoring all air travel."

"Teleportation is air travel?" I restrained a laugh.

"It's hard to explain," she waved the notion off, then seemed to get an idea, "Oh! I know. Percy Jackson lives in New York. I always liked that boy…such a good love story…."

I stared at her like she was a five year old sticking her finger in a light socket, "Uh, that's great, but how does that_ help_ me?"

She shook her head again, like I do when I get distracted by too many ideas, "Oh. Sorry. He's a demigod that I trust. Go to his apartment and tell him I sent you and asked him to personally make sure you and your sister get to Camp Half Blood."

"Um….ok, but you're forgetting something-his address would be kind of important."

She grinned, "I know, child, I was getting to that. Here," she snapped her fingers and a piece of pink scented paper appeared in a poof cloud of sparkly perfume, "The address is on that."

I looked down at it and sure enough there was perfect black scrawl in calligraphy of a downton Manhattan apartment.

The goddess's mood switched back to dire warning again, "Now go. I don't mean after the funeral. I mean now. Take your sister, pack your bags, and run. Remember: Love conquers all."

And with those final words, she evaporated into a glittering pink cloud.

The train hit a bump in the track and I was startled awake, with Meely's snores in the background. I looked over at her sleeping with her hair in her face and sighed. All my life, I swore to keep my baby sister safe. Try to make sure she was happy. I believed it was kind of my duty to her as her older sibling. But now, I had pulled us from everything we knew and all we believed to be safe and told her I'd take her to New York to see the sights before we went to our friends' house in Connecticut and begged to stay with them.

I had lied to my sister. She still thinks we're just going on a fun trip to a friend's. But we were going to some random dude's house that I'd never met to see if he'd take us to some camp that I'd never been to. I had no idea what I was doing here. I barely had enough money left for train fare. And if what Aphrodite had said is true, then they're may be monsters waiting to eat us once we lay foot in New York. That is if a search party of state officials doesn't report us missing and come find us before we even get to the big apple. I mean I'm only sixteen; I have no freakin' idea what I'm doing.

Meely moved around in her seat and snored louder this time. I laughed. I remember the day I'd forced Dad to make Meely sleep in a different room so I didn't have to hear her snoring…it all seemed so far away now. Meely never gave up hope that our mother would come back. Well, our mother came to me yesterday, and I still haven't told Meels.

I shook off the guilt and stared straight ahead at the seat. This was our life now. This was our situation and I had to make the best of it. _I'm still protecting her_, I assured myself, _We'll both be safer at this camp. Still have no idea WHY I believe Aphrodite though…. _

Meely yawned and soon enough, was awake. Bad thing about being so close to your sister is that closeness enables us to be able to read each other like a book. She blinked the sleep from her eyes, took one look at my face, and knew something was wrong, "Alice….you look….scared….and when YOU're scared it must be pretty bad…what's wrong?"

I stared at my little sister's face; her expression was concerned, her eyebrows knitted together over her big brown eyes.

Great, her innocence was making me feel even guiltier. I couldn't hide this from her anymore. And besides, I trust her.

"Look….when we got on this train, I know I said that I didn't know anything about Mom and that she abandoned us….but that was a lie."

She stared at me in disbelief, like she was trying to pretend she didn't just hear what I said; I never lied to her.

"I'm so sorry, Meels, I should've told you," I spoke quickly to get it all out, "But our mom was at the funeral yesterday. She talked to me…..okay, promise you'll listen and not freak out when I tell you this next part, please?"

She nodded quickly, "You better tell me quick girl, before I slap you upside your pixie little head."

I laughed, despite the situation my sister had a way of making me smile. I quickly shifted back to serious mode as I looked around to make sure no one was listening to us. Thankfully, our train car was pretty empty; just some creepy dude in a baseball cap and some old lady sitting in the corner.

I made a "come here" gesture with my fingers, then leaned into her ear to whisper, "…..Our mom is Aphrodite."

She pulled back from me with a dazed look on her face, not a look of disbelief, but more like her brain was trying to process the information, but kept coming up with 'ERROR: does not compute'.

After a few minutes she turned to me with a raised eyebrow, "If you're kidding, Al, I'm gonna hit you."

I simply smiled and shook my head, "I'm dead serious."

"For once," she said absent-mindedly, still mulling over my words, "So…..like, the goddess of Love and all that stuff….she's our Mom? And that's why she left?"

…Wow, she put that last part together faster than I did.

I nodded, "Apparently Uncle Zeus has some weird thing about communication between gods and their children being dangerous."

"….wait….this means we're half god!" she squealed.

The creepy dude in the baseball cap glanced over at us from under his hat, "Meely, !" I hissed as quietly as I could, giving her an elbow to the ribs for good measure.

She frowned and rubbed her side, "Sheesh, ya don't gotta be so violent about it."

I grinned, "Yes I do," I quipped, "That's who I am. Or have you forgotten?" I smirked at her playfully and soon we both dissolved into giggles as the train pulled into its next stop. I head the doors of other cabins screech open as some people filed off the train.

I looked up at the clock-4:30- we should be in New York in another hour.

After about 45 minutes, Meels was getting very anxious to see New York-she'd always wanted to go there. We both love Fashion Week so we'd pestered our Dad to take us since we were 10. Needless to say, he refused every time. I pushed that painful thought away; I didn't want to cry on a train in front of strangers. I hate crying in public. Besides, I had to be strong for Meely; if I cried, she'd cry. _And we'd both mess up our makeup,_ the random thought flitted through my head before I realized it didn't matter.

"Alice, come ON!" Meely whined, "I really wanna go to Times Square before we go to Danielle's house."

It amazed me that my sister could still be so annoying, even while grieving. And it bugged me that she seemed so cavalier about this, "Meely! For the last time, no! Don't you get this? We aren't on vacation! We're gonna be on our own in a huge city unless we can beg and convince Danielles' parents to take us in and not tell the authorities that we're runaways! God, it's like you don't even miss Dad…." I grumbled the last part to myself and was immediately sorry that I'd said it. Meely's face dropped. I could see her fighting to decide whether she wanted to cry or slap me.

"Shut up Alice!" she practically screamed, "Stop acting like you know everything! I'm just as scared and sad and confused as you are! You know this is how I distract myself! Not everybody can face crap like this head on like you do! You don't always have to be the strong wise big sister, ya know! I'm not a baby anymore!"

I turned my head away while my eyes stung with tears, "You're right," I whispered, though I couldn't look at her while I said it, "I've been compensating. Mom was never here, so I felt like I owed it to you to protect you. But it was unequal-you're not a baby, you're smart too. And I never should've questioned the way you deal with…..Dad being gone."

I could sense her shrugging behind me; it's weird, but it's kind of like sister telepathy, "I know this is just how YOU deal with stuff-by bottling it up, refusing to think about it, then lashing out. But you don't have to do everything yourself, you know? I'll…I'll help."

I smiled, "I know."

"How sweet," a snarling voice like crumbling asphalt rasped from behind us. Meely nearly hit her head on the ceiling she jumped so high. It would've been funny had there not been two REALLY ugly monster things behind us. The one that had spoke had the face of the old lady that was sitting behind us, but everything else on her was different. She had dozens of slimy green snakes attached to her head like hair, slithering around and hissing in a typical snake like manner. Her body was covered by an old granny dress-truly hideous puke green dress with stripes and flowers by the way-but her feet looked scaly. I didn't bother looking down again to check if my eyes were playing tricks on me again. The second monster was the creepy dude with the hat that I'd seen earlier. Except he wasn't a dude anymore…from the waist down he was a black stallion.

I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as I frantically looked around for any escape. I could hear Meely start to hyperventilate beside me. She tapped my shoulder with a shaking hand, "Um…..you see them too, right?"

I gulped and looked over to her, "Yeah, Meels," I took her hand in mine, "I see them too."

I don't know how I was doing it, but in the back of my mind I was calculating several battle plans-moves I could use to disable them or tricks we could try to distract them long enough to get away. I was still scared as hell but I could feel my survival instincts kicking in. The jitteriness that I usually feel was actually coming in useful; I could feel it the nerves powering through my veins like adrenaline. I felt faster and stronger. I'm not sure why, but somehow I was able to unfreeze from the paralyzing fear I'd felt moments ago.

"So….these are the children of Love that we've been hearing about. You know we heard Zeus had deemed you two dangerous…" the old creepy snake lady looked over to her friend the horse dude, "I don't know, what do you think, Eurie? Do these little girls seem dangerous to you?"

The centaur(yes I know stuff) sneered at us with delight in his sickly gray eyes, "Nah. They don't look like they could hurt a fly-way to pretty for violence."

Their words were getting to me; I hate when people underestimate me. It makes me want to punch them. In the face. The anger was starting to heat my whole body up, my fists clenching by my sides. On a random note, I wondered if I somehow really WAS related to Ares….it would explain this reaction.

I felt Meely's fingers tighten around my hand I knew their taunts were having the same effect on her as they did to me.

I glanced over to Meely out of the corner of my eye, and she looked to me at the same time. It was times like these that I was glad I could practically read her mind but looking in her eyes; I knew we had the same idea.

"Plan BW?" I whispered to her, knowing she knew what I meant. It was the plan we used to teach a bratty girl in our 2nd grade class a lesson- Britney Wilkins. She'd always picked on Meely and I for being ADHD. Until one day, we heard a rumor that she was gonna try to start a physical fight with us at recess-so we came up with a plan at lunch that day to use the moves we'd learned in karate class from the day before on her.

An evil glint that I love to see came into my sister's eyes, "Plan BW."

We both got huge grins on our faces as we turned back to face the monsters, who for some stupid reason hadn't attacked us yet-they probably thought we were too harmless to expend energy on. They'd soon learn differently, "I call Horse Face."

I didn't even look at me Meely when I heard her respond back with, "I'll take care of Old Lady Ugly."

As the two monsters were exchanging dubious looks with each other and chuckling t our expense me and my sister grinned bigger, "Aaaaaaand….GO!" I shouted.

I launched myself forward, doing a front walkover into Horse Face's face, effectively kicking him in the nose. I righted myself quickly and drove my elbow into the pressure point in his neck. I did all of that before he could say "Ow."

I saw an admittedly scary pissed off look on Horse Dude's face as he lumbered towards me. He was recovering quicker than I'd hoped he would.

"You'll pay for that, Princess," he growled at me. Before I could realize what he was doing he swung a hand at my face and knocked me to the ground, the pain spreading through my cheek like burning needles.

I shot my eyes up to look at him as I jumped back to my feet. I quickly climbed up on top of a train seat. I was about to karate kick his stupid face off when I heard a thwack and the centaur fell face first to the ground.

"No one hurts my big sister and gets away with it…BITCH!" my sister's snarling voice came from behind the horse dude as he fell.

I leaped off the chair and grinned, "Thanks, Meels!"

She grinned at me, "See…I got moves too."

My eyes widened as I saw the other monster that Meely had knocked to the floor had gotten up and was about to whack my sister in the back of the head.

"Duck!" I shouted to her. Meely trusted me automatically and ducked to the floor quickly as I swung around in kick spin , planting my foot to the Snake Lady's neck.

I grabbed Meely's hand again, squeezed it, and looked her straight in the eye, "RUN!"

She nodded and didn't hesistate; we took off running out of the train cabin door, flying through the hall of the train car, knocking people over and shoving to get through in our haste to escape.

We heard shouts of "Hey!" and "Watch it!" as we barreled through the hall.

"Alice, look out! Food cart!"

I saw what my sister meant as I nearly collided with the silver cart carrying sandwiches and soda's. I acted on instinct, jumped, and front-tuck flipped over the cart.

"Woah! If we weren't running for our lives right now, I'd totally give you a high five for that! That was awesome, girl!"

I grinned and kept running. Neither of us bothered to look behind us, but we could hear the snakes from the lady's hair hissing from behind us.

"Meely! The train door's locked!" I looked at her, panic stricken, as I realized that the door to our escape was locked and we didn't have enough time to slow down and open the door.

Before I could finish my thought, I heard a thud from in front of me. I looked back to the front and saw that Meely had kicked the door down!

"Hahaha, badass, Meels!" was the last thing I said before we both jumped out of a moving train.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/n: **_Heyo, two chapters in one day. I'm off to a good start with this story. Anyway, need to go write for a __**A Father's Fear **now.__ Enjoy, and REVIEW. I COMMAND YOU. HEHEH._

**Disclaimer: **_I own nada._

"Well….that was fun."

I looked over at my sister with a 'you've gotta be kidding' look on my face as the two of us walked along the side of the street, picking grass out of our hair. As soon as we were in the air, we'd got some weird instinctual surivial urge to duck and cover. Acutally, TUCK and cover. When you roll up in a ball in the air, gravity kind of MAKES you do a flip and then land on your butt in the grass on the side of the highway. From the skyscraper sin the not too distant distance, I figured we were a few miles outside of New York, on a highway that must connect the city to the outer suburbs. I really hated the idea of taking a 5 miles hike, but I really didn't want to get back on another train. I will never trust any train again in my life.

Meely punched my shoulder, "Relax," she chuckled, "I was only kidding. You should' ve seen your face."

"You think that's funny, do you?" I smirked, getting an idea that would wipe that grin off her face, "Well, guess what? We're gonna have to walk 5 miles into the city. Is that funny?" I tilted my head with an evil look in my eye as I laughed when her face fell.

"No," she pouted and kicked the grass, "….wait, why can't we just get a taxi?"

I raised both my eyebrows and laughed, "And pay the cabby with WHAT exactly? We don't have that much money."

She frowned for a few more minutes, until a look I recognized came over her face. Oooooh know, that's her 'I have an idea that's probably gonna get us arrested' look. I know that look. Because I wear it more often than she does. So I know it's bad news.

"Oh, no. No no no. Whatever you're thinking-no."

She fake pouted, "Awwwww, Allie!" she whined, putting her puppy dog eyes to good use, "Pleeeeease," she stuck her bottom lip out and made her eyes all huge and teary.

"Damn it!" I cursed, "Why did I ever teach you the puppy dog technique! Fine! What's your idea?"

The faux sad looked wiped off her face immediately and turned into a wicked grin, "Simple: we get a cab, tell them where we want to go, then at the end of the trip when he asks for the money, we just throw the doors of the cab open and run away!"

…

I couldn't decide if she was an idiot or a genius, but for some reason I still had the urge to slap her.

I raised an eyebrow at her and gave her my 'I'm not sure about this, but I'm thinking about it and will probably end up going along with you just for the fun of it' look.

She recognized the expression on my face instantly and smiled, jumping up and down and laughing, "Hahaha yes! Let's go!" she grabbed my hand and started running with me.

I laughed and let her pull me along; the wind on my face felt good after all that mess on the train. The fear and worry were slowly going to the back of my mind and the cold air on my bruised cheek was refreshing.

"Just one problem with your plan, Meels; there's no cab around here and WHERE are you taking me?" I laughed insanely, just going along with it.

"I don't know!" she laugh/yelled back, "I'm just running! Even with all this crap we've been going through, we never actually LITERALLY ran away; so let's run. Let's run away."

I looked over at her and knew that wherever we were going, we'd be okay. Because we're crazy, we're survivors, we're smart, and we're together.

"Well, run until we spot a cab that is…." Meely mumbled to herself. I laughed out loud and kept running, throwing gymnastic tricks and flips along the side of the rode with my crazy baby sister behind me.

So, after about a mile and a half of running/falling over and sitting for a while, we finally spotted an obnoxiously yellow taxi. Meely immediately stuck her thumb out and wolf whistled when she saw it. I looked at her like she was a freak and she quickly explained that she'd done research about New York before and that one of those research topics was how to hail a cab. I still looked at her like she was a freak, just an EXPLAINED freak now.

We hopped in the cab and I looked up in the driver's seat to make sure the cabbie wasn't some lunatic monster again. But it was just a middle-aged man with a bad haircut smiling at us, "Where to, girls?" he asked in a thick New Yorker accent.

I restrained myself from giggling at his accent and quickly told him the address that Aphrodite had POOFED onto the very pink piece of paper. The cabbie nodded and turned around, putting the car back into drive, "All right. That's about 10 miles away. Should be there in maybe 20 minutes-New York traffic ya know?"

"Actually, we don't know," Meely offered freely, smiling, "We're not from here."

I mentally face-palmed at her, giving out information about us to strangers like that but the man just laughed, "Yeah, I could tell. You girls have a sort of southern sound to your voices. Where you from?"

"Georgia," I piped up, but said nothing more than that and elbowed Meely in the stomach before I hissed at her quietly, "Don't be so chatty with strangers."

She winched and nodded, "Sorry. I forget that we're on the run," she whispered back.

I rolled my eyes and almost laughed.

"So, since I like you girls, I'll give you a discount; twenty miles usually comes up to about thirty-five dollars, but I'll take five bucks off the total for ya. Thirty dollars, please?" he held a hand back to us over the seat, palm up, waiting for payment from us…that would never come.

Meely spluttered nervously and looked at me, mouthing, _What do we do? _

_Great plan! _I mouthed back.

"Um….sorry, sir, but um….we don't have the money….you'll give us a ride, anway, won't you?" I put all the persuasion I could into my voice, trying to sound like a desperate little girl so he'd feel sorry for us. It was the only strategy I could think of. I sadly waited for the sound of him hitting the breaks and telling us to get out, but it never came.

For reason I don't even want to start to understand the cabbie just looked back at us and smiled blanky, "Of course. Sure. I'll give you a ride anyway," he said in a sort of confused monotone. He turned right back around and kept driving us into the city.

Meely and I just stared at each other, baffled, as the man blindly did exactly as we asked.

The rest of the cab ride was spent in silence. I guess we were all three two confused and freaked out to say anything. When we got to our destination, the man pulled up to the side of the curb, turned back to us and said, "We're here," he blinked at me a few times as if trying to clear a fog from his mind, "No payment necessary," he looked as if he didn't know why he was saying the words but couldn't not say them.

"Ummmm…." I started awkwardly, "Thanks."

Just because I didn't understand what the man did, didn't mean I wasn't grateful.

He nodded and I got one last look at his confused face before Meely and I climbed out of the car and stared up at the huge apartment building.

"Woah," I heard Meely say beside me, "So…..what address is this? Why are we here?"

I was so caught up with the monsters and getting a new ride that I'd actually forgotten to tell Meely that we were going to this Percy dude's house. I briefly wondered why she didn't ask, then realized that she was caught up too. She didn't have that much time to be curious; she just trusted me and went along with it.

I smiled at her, "I forgot to tell you. But thanks for trusting me anyways. We're here because I'm listening to our mother. Listening. I know, it's strange for me. But she said the dude that lives here could get us to somewhere safe. Aphrodite said that if we told him she sent us he'd take us to some camp. She said it's the only safe place for people like us."

I purposely left out the part about the world falling to darkness and war…..yeah, that wouldn't lift my sister's spirits any.

"People like us?" she started, "You mean crazy run away teenage daughters of Aphrodite?"

I laughed and nodded.

When our giggles died down, she got a contemplative look like she was weighing our options and then turned back to me,

"So…who is this guy and why does our mom trust him?"

I shrugged, "Hell if I know. All Mom told me was a name; Percy Jackson. And something about a love story….though I don't think that part was relevant…."

Meely actually didn't laugh, she just raised an eyebrow and gave me a look, "If this is our best option, I'm in."

I smiled at her using logic for once, "Well then…let's go up."

We walked into the lobby of the building and smiled at the doormen. We'd never really been in city apartment buildings before. This one wasn't very fancy, but we still felt kind of out place in our two days old dirty clothes, carrying our scratched up travel bags, not to mention the grass and dirt in our hair. I'm just gonna say it; we looked a mess. Hopefully this Percy guy would let us take a shower before we go to this strange camp that Mom had told me practically nothing about. Cue sarcastic yet hopeful look here.

We walked up to the front desk and looked at the lady behind the computer, "Um….which floor is Percy Jackson on? We're….friends of his."

The lady looked at us from over the counter, and stopped herself from laughing at our bedraggled appearance, "Old friends? Yes, of course…but I don't think-"

"Please lady! Please! We just need to see him!" Meely interrupted her with a pleading voice. I guess the stress of the past two days finally got to her.

I expected the lady to awkwardly comfort Meely or call security on us but she just got the same blank look as the cab driver and nodded her head, "Yes, of course. Percy Jackson is on floor 5; room 109."

Meely looked stunned for a minute, but quickly got over it and sighed in relief, grinning. I gave the lady a weird look as Meely dragged me along toward the elevators.

When we got the door of room 109, we started to have a problem…..Neither of us had the guts to nock. We came all this way and now we didn't even have the courage to knock on this kid's door. I mean, what were we gonna say to him- 'Our Dad just died and we ran away and got on a train, but then monsters attacked us so we fought them with some awesome moves then jumped off the train, hitchhiked, then caught a cab, so please help us and take us to this weird unknown camp that you might not even know about. Oh, and our mom is Aphrodite'?

"You do it," I poked her in the arm.

She looked at me, angered and poked me back harder, "No YOU! This was your idea!"

"This wasn't my idea! It was our stupid mother Love goddess' idea!"

"Well Aphrodite isn't here, so I doubt she can knock on the door for us!"

"Well…YOU'RE JUST….right. Yeah, you're kinda right…." I rubbed the back of my neck, not really sure what to do. Just as I was about to start another poke fight with my sister, the door in front of us opened up, revealing a tall cute guy with dark hair and emerald eyes, "So…..what are you guys doing fighting outside my door?" he asked with a sort of endearingly awkward humor.

We both turned to face him, grinning and giggling nervously, like we did when we were little and Dad caught us eating ice cream before dinner, "Heh heh…ummmmm. Hi, are you Percy?"

He pushed knitted his eyebrows together in a cute, confused expression and nodded cautiously, "Yeah, that's me….and who are you?"

I looked to Meely and had to physically stop myself from elbowing her in the ribs again when she didn't offer up any help to me. Instead she opted to stand there staring at Percy and cute-boy-giggling to herself.

"I'm Alice Stevens, and this is my sister Meely…okay how to word this?" I paused to think, "Listen, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I think we need your help. Our mom told me to come find you and ask you to take us to some place called Camp Half Blood, and normally I wouldn't believe strange shimmering ladies that show up out of nowhere and tell me that they're a goddess, but my Dad just died and these creepy monsters attacked us on the train, and…well I just really wanna get me and my sister somewhere safe now."

I hadn't meant to dump all that on this guy I didn't know in a really badly worded ramble, but I couldn't help it. I was so stressed that the words just started coming out.

Surprisingly, he didn't look…well, surprised at all. A little taken aback from my random fast-talking rant-everyone is- but he actually listened, nodding his head like he was used to this, "Come inside."

We did.

"Look, I don't know you, but I know you're not crazy, I-"

Meely snorted, "No, she's crazy alright."

Percy glanced over at Meely awkwardly and then looked back to me, "Umm….yeah. Anyway, I believe you. But….just wondering, who IS your mom?"

I had to look at the floor to get the words out, I just kept expecting him to think I'd lost my mind, and this next statement wasn't going to help matters, "…..Aphrodite."

Percy laughed. That boy actually started to laugh. We instantly glared at him, "What? NOW you think we've lost it?"

He shook his head apologetically, "No. No. I still believe you, it's just that…I've never seen Aphrodite girls this….dirty. Sorry, I'm just used to seeing the Aphrodite girls at camp always being so…shiny," he rubbed his neck nervously like I had a few minutes ago, "For lack of a better word. Anyway, that would explain a lot."

"Explain what?"

He smiled goofily at us and I immediately realized why my mom trusted this guy; it was hard not to. The honest gleam in his eyes, the lovable grin. It was easy to see how loyal and good this boy was.

"Explain the little smacky fight you had out there, and well….the fact that you're both really pretty…."

Meely grinned and bit her lip, "Well thank you," she fluttered her eyelashes at him.

I laughed and rolled my eyes, "Meels…he was just stating a fact; he wasn't hitting on you. Leave the boy alone," I turned to Percy, "You shouldn't have said that. You see, my sister is very…enthusiastic when it comes to boys."

Percy smiled, still a little embarrassed from speaking without thinking, but amused now, "Yeah….I think I know what you mean. I've run into nymphs like that…."

I raised an eyebrow at him and he shook it off, "Oh…yeah, nevermind. You'll understand later. But um….sorry, uh Meely right?"

She nodded.

"But, uh…I have a girlfriend."

Meely's face fell comedically fast; from 'hot boy daze' to 'aww crap balls'. I stopped myself from laughing. With everything that had happened lately, it wasn't that hard.

Instead I turned to Percy, "I figured you did."

He turned his head quickly to look at me and his eyebrows shot up, "How did you know?"

I grinned wide, "I don't know….I just felt it. I looked at you and you looked…taken," I didn't know why I was telling this to him, but once I started talking, I couldn't help but try to explain it, "There's this certain light in your eyes. Not the kind of light that comes from being naturally joyful or energetic, but a purposeful light. A light that someone gave to you, a thankful light."

He looked at me blanky for a second then blinked from shock, "Woah, you're the most perceptive Aphrodite girl I'VE ever met."

I laughed, "I doubt that. Wouldn't all Love Children be able to sense those things? The others you've met probably just never chose to show you it."

He shook his head at me bemusedly, laughing a little, like he didn't quite understand me but I amused him anyway. I get that look a lot…

He started walking into the kitchen area, "You guys can hang out in the living room until my mom gets back. I'll tell her what's going on, then I'll take you to Camp."

"Wait, you can drive?" Meely interjected suddenly, after having taken a few minute respite from talking-probably from embarrassment- I couldn't help but wish just a little for her to take another rest from talking. I grinned mentally.

Percy reached over to a plate of what looked like blue sugar cookies on the counter and picked one up, popping it into his mouth before responding, "Yea-ph, goh ma lishensh lash year," his mouth was so full of cookie that he sounded a bit like a 3 year old.

My sister and I couldn't help but giggle; we were witnessing the epitome of teenage boy-dom: talking while they're eating.

Our laughter caused him to get a little self-conscious; he wiped some crumbs off of his chin-and yes, it was adorable- and choked down the remainder of his cookie, coughing as crumbs undoubtedly got stuck in his throat. I bit my lip as I grinned, to keep from going into another fit of giggles. I walked up to the other side of the counter, and looked at Percy, amused. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Meely following behind me with the same expression.

"Dude, chew then talk," Meely laughed, looking him up and down with her 'hmph, you're a hot mess' look that she so frequently directed at me.

He grinned sheepishly and rubbed his neck, "Sorry. Habit. I guess my friends don't notice my bad manners."

I rolled my eyes, "No, they just don't mind because they're probably used to you."

He laughed, relaxing from the embarassment now, and gave us a bright smile (That almost made Meely go back into 'Hot Boy Daze.), "Yeah, you're probably right."

"So," I started, leaning against the counter from exhaustion, "When is your mom getting back? Cause not to be insensitive or anything-"

"When have you ever cared if you were polite?" Meely cut me off.

For a split second I wanted to slap her, then I stopped and pulled a face, realizing she was right, "Fair point," I turned to her and acknowledged her point as we smiled and laughed at each other, "But as I was saying, we're really tired."

"Like pass out on the floor tired."

"Yeah, thanks, that's helpful, Meely."

"Just trying to back you up," she grinned that innocent smile that somehow made me want to simultaneously laugh and forgive her a noogie AND punch her in the arm.

"So, anyway, yeah. We're really tired and would kind of like to…sleep now. I mean, I feel kind of rude because you let us and agreed to help us, us being random strangers to you, but we've had a terrible week and we're really sad and exhausted and I really just wanna go to bed and pretend this was all a dream," I didn't expect the sob the came at the end of my rant, but I should've. I'd been running purely on adrenaline for the last three days, blocking out any of the sadness or grief or anger and purely focusing on getting me and my sister to safety. I know, repressing emotions is really unhealthy, but nobody ever said I was sane.

Percy looked shock at my sudden mood swing, but I didn't care, I turned to Meely and saw her standing behind me with a sympathetic but sad expression on her face, like she felt sorry for me and for herself. I ran to my sister and she wrapped her arms around me as I immediately started crying on her shoulder.

"Dad's dead….dad's dead…Meely, I'm sorry," I kept repeating useless words and I could feel Meely stopping herself from crying so she could comfort me.

She patted my head, "I know, Al, I know. C'est tout va bien. Vous n'avez rien a etre desole."

"Mais…mais…Je suis cense etre fort pour nous, mais je ne peux pas Meely, car il est parti. Daddy…."

As I held myself to my little sister, refusing to let go, I noticed that Percy had stopped talking. I pulled back a little and glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He was standing awkward behind us with his hands in his pockets.

I laughed a little, watery sounding from my tears, "I'm sorry, we've just…had a lot happen to us recently."

He shook his head sympathetically and his green eyes looked haunted for a second, "No, trust me, I understand. And it's okay. If you want to cry, I know from experience that it's better to let it out than to ignore it."

I grinned gratefully at him, "Thank you…Percy," I lowered my head a little bit in a polite nod as I walked over to him, "Can I give you a hug now? For you know….accepting all this craziness of ours. Besides, it feels like a hug moment," I grinned my best charming grin to get him to agree. I wanted to pay this boy back somehow, show him that we appreciated him helping us.

He eyed me, bemused and relieved at the same time, "Sure."

I laughed as I pulled him into a friendly hug.

Meely stood behind me disgruntled that she didn't get a hug. Percy seemed to notice because he pulled back and looked at her, "I guess you can get in this too," he said very awkwardly. Bless.

I smiled at the sudden warm moment in our day. This was a nice change from the scary and sad moments of the past few days.

"Hey Seaweed Brain, I was just coming by to-…..what the Hades?"

Meely and I spun around simultaneously, on instinct, to see who the pissed off voice belonged to. There was a cute blond girl standing in the doorway, which we somehow left open….

She had blond ringlet curls like mine in a hastily done ponytail, except they were a creamy blond color. Her eyes were gray, but not the dull kind of gray, the intelligent, knowing kind of gray. She wore a blue T shirt and jeans and a very confused/angry expression. Percy's girlfriend. It wasn't just the jealousy that gave her away ; when I looked in her eyes, I somehow knew she belonged with him.

"Hi Annabeth," I smiled brightly, happy to meet the girl that had made Percy, the boy who was helping us, so happy.

She looked thrown for a loop, one eyebrow raised in disbelief, "Excuse me, but just how do you know who I am? And why were you hugging my boyfriend?"

"Dude, you're glowing."

_Helpful, Meely. _I rolled my eyes.

"What?" both Percy and Annabeth looked at Meely and I like we were crazy. And that's when I noticed that my sister was right-they were both glowing, the same color red. I blinked…people don't usually glow do they?

_Think my child,_ my head whipped toward the sound of the whisper floating through my head, _You know what light means. _

And for some reason I couldn't explain, I knew what this power was and I knew why I automatically knew Annabeth's name-because Annabeth and Percy are in love, that's what the light meant-their colors matched.

I shook my head to clear it, like I saw my mom do, "Oh, sorry. Right. Wrong order. I'll explain," I said calmly as I could as I walked us all into the living room to sit down. I surpressed a grin when Percy and Annabeth automatically sat right next to each other.

Annabeth stared at us, indignant, "So now would be a good time to explain all of this."

I laughed and for some reason it shimmered in the air. Thanks mom.

"You don't have to be jealous, Annabeth. Believe me, I wouldn't stand in you and Percy's way. My sister however…..she's incorrigible."

Meely scoffed, "Hey! I see it too. I wouldn't get between that. No way."

"Ok," Percy started, slightly red in the cheeks, "You're still making no sense. Introduce yourself first."

I giggled, "Oh. Right. I'm slow. Forgive me. I'm Alice Lyla Marie Stevens. This is my little sister Meely Majjita Stevens. And we came here to find Percy because our mother told us he'd take us to Camp Half Blood where we'd be safe. I was just hugging him to thank him for accepting all our craziness."

I let a breath out, seeming relieved, "Ok, but….what about the light, and you knowing my name, and what were you two talking about when you said 'I see it' and who's your mother that told you to come here?"

I grinned; this was the fun part, "Aphrodite."

She laughed, a sound that came off as more of a scoff, "Of course. That explains the outfits."

I scrunched my eyebrows together, "What outfits?"

I looked down and gasped; I wasn't in my muddy jeans and jacket anymore. My feet were encased in blue satin peep toed heels. I ran my eyes up my legs to see I was wearing a leather mini skirt and a navy lace blouse. I 'aww'd as I picked up my hair-clean, soft, curled, and I noticed that I smelled like raspeberries and sunshine. Meely was all pimped out too.

"I swear we didn't arrive here like this….Mom must've….Oh. Wow," was I could say.

"Wow is right-look at my shoes, Ali! Vintage Prada!"

"Oh my crap, really?" I leaned over to her side of the couch excitedly to check out her shoes, "Brown faded lather with double cross stictching, nice," I nodded, grinning.

Annabeth and Percy blinked at us, "Oh my gods, there's more of them."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, anyway, I knew your name because you're in love with that one," I jerked a thumb at Percy, "And I think…when two people are truly meant to be….Aphrodite and her children can sense it. And who they are. And the light well, light is an extension of our souls…..I'm new at this, but I think my mom downloaded this into my brain. But I think the light is a way of telling us what kind of love a person is experiencing- different colors for different feelings probably. And if two people's lights match…they belong together. And Percy, Annabeth…you're lights match."


End file.
